Search for a Star & Sumo Digital Rising Star Character Art Challenge

We’re on the lookout for artists who can create stunning characters

We’re on the lookout for amazing student Character artists! We launched the art branch of Search for a Star a couple of years ago, and we’ve been blown away by what you guys can create.

We set up the Character Art strand of the challenge because the industry is crying out for more talented artists like yourself. We want to highlight your skills to the industry and help keep the UK at the forefront of innovation in games development. Search for a Star can take you to great places, like Character Art winner Sam Bang, who went onto work at Frontier!

As with all the challenge strands, Character Art is split up into three components:

The Skills Challenge

We’ll ask you to submit one piece of work, created in the last 12 months, which you feel best showcases your skills and overall abilities. Alongside this, we’ll ask for a 250-word explanation of how the final piece came to be and how your idea evolved along the way.

Your work will then be sent to a number of industry professionals for review who will assess your submission on the following four criteria:

Research & concept development

Creativity & expression

Technical skill & artistic technique

Presentation

You’ll receive tailored feedback from professionals who have years’ of experience in the field. They’ll let you know what you did well and what you could maybe improve upon, and how you can do that!

The Dev Challenge

We’re happy to announce that every student who registers for Search for a Star this year will be able to take part in both the Dev and Skills Challenges! This is where things get really interesting. Our panel of expert character artists will present you with a brief for you to work on which mimics the kind of tests you’d be asked to do when applying for a job in industry. Once again, you’ll receive tailored industry feedback to help you grow your craft.

The brief will contain a number of pieces of concept art donated by our studio partners for you to choose from. You’ll then use your creative flair and artistic abilities to create something to stun the judges.

To give you an idea of what last year’s character artists got up to, take a look below at our round two submissions, including Character Art winner: Michael Starovoytov.

The Interview

When both previous stages of the competition close, our judges will begin weighing up the scores. Three contestants from Search for a Star Character Art and Sumo Digital Rising Star Character Art will then be invited to an interview panel in front of character art professionals from leading UK studios at our famous Finals Day Showcase event!

They’ll want to know all about your submissions, technical knowledge and motivations. What makes you tick as a character artist – that kind of stuff. You’ll then be free to enjoy the rest of the day, attend the industry presentations and mingle with other contestants and UK studios who travel from all over the country to meet students like you!

A winner from each strand will be picked and will receive a number of prizes donated from industry alongside the most coveted interview for a job (for Search for a Star winners) or internship (for Sumo Digital Rising Star winners).

Search for a Star and Sumo Digital Rising Star are now open for registration – sign up here!